“It’s $98.75,” I said to my roommate as I scanned over our gas bill.
This is twice as much as it had ever been.
Paying the bill would require us to re-evaluate our finances for the month, prompting us to eat unprecedented amounts of Ramen Noodles and Spaghetti-Os for the remaining 10 days in January.
While the on campus housing requirement at Baker relieves students of some of the complications of adult life, I consider myself lucky to bear these burdens.
It prepares me for graduation and beyond.
Baker University is doing its students a disservice by requiring on campus living.
Baker students miss out on so many valuable experiences by having to live on campus.
For example, that high gas bill prompted my roommate and I to be more conservative about our heating usage.
The average Baker student never even has to think about his or her thermostat or the length of showers.
This housing requirement does nothing to prepare students for graduation.
My roommate and I don’t have an RA to inspect our apartment for cleanliness. If it gets too dirty, we’ll get mice.
Students and their parents pay “rent” in the form of a housing fee every semester that works out to be far more expensive than a lease on an off campus apartment.
On top of that, students who do not have a kitchen eat in the dining hall, where meals range from $5 to $8.
In comparison, I can make 8 servings of chili in my Crock-Pot that I freeze and reheat for less than $15. Do the math, and that is $1.87 a meal.
The university has also made more apparent a stipulation that if a student is approved to live off campus, up to 40 percent of their scholarship money can be revoked.
Yes, Baker is in an economic crisis, but so are the students and their families.
Why should the buck be passed to us? We weren’t the ones who set an “aggressive budget.”
Baker claims living on campus is beneficial to its students because it facilitates student success.
As someone who has lived off campus for a few years, I know that my place of residence has had no impact on my success in school.
Baker is concerned about students partying too much if they live off campus. But here’s some breaking news: students are adults.
If they want to party too much to go to class, they should be able to. When they don’t make the grades, Baker can kick them out.
Also, if Baker requires living on campus because it’s so concerned about partying, why does it allow men to live in fraternities?
I hope Baker realizes that the purpose of a university is to prepare its students for adult life.
Requiring students to live on campus does not support this growth toward adulthood, and is also a financial burden to students and their families.